A report on childhood obesity has set a fat cat among overweight pigeons at a time the entire world is grappling with the debilitating health crisis. Being overweight or obese has no longer remained an issue that hovers around appearance. Gone are the days when being overweight would lead to people worrying only about appearance and cosmetic changes.
The obesity epidemic is leading to major diseases such as Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, cardiac conditions, and even cancer like that of the breast and colon. That obesity was an epidemic is nothing new. But the spread of the problem among children and adolescents is particularly worrying.
The Lancet report has pointed out that child and teenage obesity levels have risen ten-fold in the last four decades. In the United Kingdom, one in ten people aged five to 19 is obese.
In Asia, the number of obese children and adolescents has risen sharply with China and India underscoring the current trend. The two regional powers house close to forty percent of the world population with the proportion of young people in the population being relatively high in India. Rising income levels and the increasing propensity to consume processed food are major causes of the obesity epidemic.
China has seen income levels rise very fast, especially among the middle classes. Though the standard Chinese diet is low in fat and calories, unlike the high-fat Indian intake of sources of energy, substantially decreased physical activity and the proclivity towards ‘eating out’ could be among the major causes of weight gain among young Chinese.
An earlier Lancet report had said that high carbohydrate intake was associated with higher risk of total mortality, whereas total fat and individual types of fat were linked to lower total mortality.
Total fat and types of fat were not associated with cardiovascular disease, myocardial infarction, or cardiovascular disease mortality, whereas saturated fat had an inverse association with stroke.
The report had pointed out that global dietary guidelines should be reconsidered in light of these findings.
The global childhood obesity map doesn’t exclude the most powerful of nations — the United States. A chunk of the young population in the country that is known to grapple more with controversial geopolitics and armament complexities than with child weight gain, is obese.
It is not surprising that big brands promoting fast food and treats without nutrition have all originated in the United States. These brands entered the market in the Middle East after the invasion of Iraq when burly American soldiers started missing their burgers and pizza slices.
The report also says that children in many parts of the world are underweight. This is more because of poverty leading to less food intake. It is time the world woke up to the weighty issue of weight gain. It should probably demand more attention than climate change and denuclearization.
